The rest of the night went by without any incident. The fight with the napalm spewing lizard probably scared most of the other monsters off or its corpse attracted them to that location leaving us alone. Shame we didn’t really have the time to harvest it, but I am sure I can do that some other time.
I tried to talk to Teona last night, but I found she was not around to talk to. I’ll just visit her when I am done with our quest here. I had the last shift of the night so since I was up, I decided to make breakfast for everyone. I had all my cookware in my storage and some seasonings I had collected as well.
After some time, I had the food going and it had a nice aroma to it as well. I think the smell woke everyone up because they started to wake up and gather around me with hunger in their eyes. A few moments later Thania finally joined the group.
“Morning shorty. I see you got breakfast going. Smells pretty good too.”
Ever since we got on friendly terms, Thania started to call me shorty. Not like I really care, she kind of comes off as a sister figure. Much better sister than my blood sister, though I do still miss Maya.
“Morning to you too sis. I have to cook because you don’t seem capable enough to do it.”
I decided to tease her just a bit by calling her sis because she started to call me shorty.
“Hey! Who are you calling sis?”
“Hahaha, sorry it’s just that you give off the unreliable sister vibe.”
After hearing that you could see her face change to that of annoyance.
“Oi! Who are you calling unreliable?! I’ll show you who’s unreliable.”
After some back and forth bickering both of us calm down. Seeing the food, Thania came over to where I was sitting and started to watch me. After a few moments, she started to get interested in my cookware.
“I didn’t know you had all of this cookware on you. It’s got an interesting color to it too. Almost like…”
She trailed off for a moment as her expression changed to shock.
“Wait! Are all of these made from orichalcum! Who makes cookware out of such a precious metal!”
After making a ruckus, everyone else noticed my cookware as well and started to talk amongst themselves as well. I personally don’t think its that big of a deal. In my previous world, it wasn’t unheard of to use rare materials in cookware. I once had a pan that had shards of diamond in it. Supposedly helped with non-stick, I think.
“I got these pots and pans from my teacher, he left them for me before he left. I don’t really see what the problem is.”
At these words, Thania looked like she was about to spit up blood and just gave me an incredulous look.
“I’m not going to question this anymore but be careful. Mages would kill to get this kind of material. It is super mana conductive.
I nodded my head and took note of what she said. I didn’t know orichalcum was that valuable. We spent the rest of the early morning eating breakfast and packing up our camp. We continued on with our search with Thania giving us direction on to go.
After some time, walking, we reach an area of land that was slightly swampy. The humidity in the air started to pick up as well making everything feel all sticky. I started to question my choice of clothing for a moment but couldn’t really do anything about it. The further we went, the creepier the place became. A light fog started to roll in, obscuring the ground from our vision. Sensing my unease, Thania spoke out to the group.
“Keep your eyes peeled people! I don’t like the vibes this place is giving me.”
With silent affirmation, the group tightens up their awareness and proceeds on, following direction from Thania. The swamp was eerily quiet, the only sound made was from our footfalls.
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After a couple more hours of traveling, Thania notifies us of the location of some other tags. With caution, we proceed towards our destination.
In the distance, we saw some objects hanging from some of the trees. It wasn’t until we got closer, we realized what it was we saw.
“What in the hells is this! Who would do such a thing!” Thania was the first one to speak up while some of the other groups with weaker stomachs had to visit nearby bushes.
In front of us were the skinned corpses of two mercenaries hanging upside down from a tree. Finally coming out of my shock and slight disgust I turned to Thania.
“We need to hurry! If this scene is any indication of the missing group's fate, then we need to hurry and find them.”
Nodding here head she collects the tags from the two mercenaries, and we proceed to travel the rest of the day. Throughout the day we came across other disturbing scenes such as heads or skulls affixed to large sticks in the ground and other types of tribal or shaman-like construction.
The night was finally falling, and we decided to camp for the night quietly. We had more people for our shifts this night and would leave as soon as it was light enough to see anything.
Morning finally came and we quickly packed up and headed out, eating our quick breakfast on the way. Most of our day was spent traveling following guidance from Thania. It was around dusk when we found our destination.
We found a large village sitting in some of the deeper water of the swamp built on stilts. Patrolling around the village were some sort of amphibious bi-pedal creatures. They had webbed hands and feet with fins running along their forearms and a fin running down from their head to their tail. They were a dark green and had dark or black markings on their backs with their front side sporting a lighter green. Their only form of equipment seems to be just a polearm of some kind.
Interested in the creatures I had looked at their information trying to judge their strength.
Name: Swamp Sahuagin
Age: Adult
Level: 1
Race: Sahuagin
Class: Soldier
------
Attributes
HP: 660/660
MP: 600/600
STR: 24
END: 22
AGI: 23
INT: 12
WIS: 8
Looking at its stats I realize it is quite tough although it seems they have average intelligence. Breaking the silence Thania speaks up.
“Looks like the rest of the tags are in that village. We don’t know if those strange creatures are hostile or not but based on what we saw earlier we can assume they are.”
Nodding my head, I respond to Thania.
“They are called Sahuagin. They are an amphibious or aquatic creature. They are fairly strong, but they have average intelligence. If what I read about them is true, then they will have stronger variants inside and will most likely be led by a priestess.”
The extra details I just added based on all my video game experience dealing with such creatures.
With orders from our leader, we snuck up on the three creatures that were patrolling and silently took them out. Walking closer to the village we see a cage made from wood guarded by some more sahuagins. Inside the cage, we spot the other mercenaries.
Looking around the rest of the village we see more sahuagin in the village. We see what appears to be a female variant as well. They just about as muscular as the males but they have a slightly more feminine shape to them, and the other difference is all their tails have a yellow color to them to some degree. Some have more yellow and others have less.
Upon further inspection, we see what looks like an altar of some kind with a larger variant of sahuagin. This variant appeared to be a female as well with a full yellow tail. It was also the only creature wearing any kind of clothing and that was just some sort of tribal headdress.
Surrounding her were other large variants as well except they had four arms and were mostly black and had two polearms for each set of arms on both sides. Noticing these variants, Thania turned to our group to form a plan.
“Ok guys, we need a group to sneak over to the prisoners and free them. We also need a group to be their eyes for them and eliminate any threats and maintain our cover. The rest of us will…”
Before she could finish a loud blood-curdling scream could be heard followed by loud cheering from the monsters. Panicking I look over and find the source of the scream. On the alter was the naked figure of a woman with blond hair. The sahuagin priestess was holding a severed arm up in the air letting the blood drip on her face. The surrounding sahuagin were cheering loudly, chanting in some unknown language. Upon closer inspection, I realize the woman was Laura.
[Oh shit!]
As much as she annoyed me, she does not deserve this. Angry, I turned towards the group and speak.
“Hey. Change of plans. I’ll run interference and you guys sneak over there and rescue the prisoners and escape. I'll catch up to guys once I get Laura and make my escape.”
Everyone looks at me with shock for a moment before Thania speaks up.
“Nope! Not allowed we will follow my plan and once we have the prisoners, we will then rescue Laura together.”
Angry and barely able to hold back my rage I respond.
“Dammit, Thania! I know you are the leader here but would you please just listen to me this once. Follow my plan and get out of here I don’t want to have to worry about friendly fire. Plus, once I have their attention it will be easier for you to do your job. I have a tracking ability so I can find you easily once I escape. No room for argument I am about to execute my in a few moments with or without you.”
Visibly agitated Thania finally gave in to my plan.
“Alright, we will go with your plan, but you better survive dammit!”
I just give a nod and get up from my position. I looked at all the sahuagin and the strongest were the four-armed variants.
Name: Swamp Sahuagin Mutant
Age: Adult
Level: 1
Race: Sahuagin
Class: Elite Guard
------
Attributes
HP: 1485/1485
MP: 1232/1232
STR: 32
END: 33
AGI: 26
INT: 17
WIS: 11
I stealthily climbed up on one of the buildings overlooking the ritual area. With my polearm in my left hand, I gather energy in my right hand forming lance-shaped energy in my hand. It was an almost impossible black as if it would threaten to absorb everything it touched. Streaks of violet, lightning-like energy crackled across my spell.
It was a new spell I created on the spot for sniping. I infused it with some curse magic to inflict debilitating pain in case if it wasn’t enough to kill anything.
Taking aim at the priestess I launched the energy lance from my hand towards the priestess. A loud thunderous roar sounded out from the area as my spell impacted the chest of the priestess turning her into a fine red mist and sending the rest of her scattering across the village.
I sat there in shock for a moment before quickly coming back to my senses. Gripping my polearm, I jumped towards the alter embedding my weapon into the neck of one of the variants.
----
Thania and the group looked at the scene in amazement. It started when they saw that spell that Lynn had cast that also gave off an incredibly sinister vibe. What surprised them more was what they saw once the monster was hit with that spell.
[Just what kind of spell was that! The force behind it must be insane!]
Coming back to their senses they saw that all the monsters rushed towards their priestess to engage Lynn.
“You know the plan. Let’s move out!”
----
I had just pulled my weapon out of the nearly decapitated sahuagin. I quickly glanced over to Laura to check her condition. She was unconscious, probably from pain, but she was still alive based on her breathing.
I glanced over at all the monsters running over towards me. I smile a bit and ready my weapon.
“Let the bodies hit the floor”